


Fear and Those who Feel It

by Ferith12



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: And why did no one suspect him, Betrayal, Death Eaters, Gen, Marauders, Why Peter did the Thing, because I don't really like how this is characterized in canon, death eaters are clever, probably not canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 23:51:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15918756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferith12/pseuds/Ferith12
Summary: It was obviously Peter Pettigrew who was bravest.





	Fear and Those who Feel It

Those fiery, dashing old school friends, the marauders, they always knew who the bravest of them was.

James Potter was terribly noble in his way, and unfalteringly bold, but he was an ordinary enough bloke really, afraid the way ordinary people are.  He’d had the regular night terrors as a child to go with the loving parents to comfort him from them.  He had a phobia or two his friends weren’t allowed to breathe word of on pain of death, or worse yet, retaliatory pranking.

Remus Lupin was a worrier of course.  Constantly worrying about himself, constantly worrying about his stupid friends, constantly hiding.  A mash of low level panic and anxiety, that was Lupin.  (Even if he secretly loved the thrill as much as any of them.)

Sirius Black, loud, furious, brilliant Serius Black, raised on darkness and pain and poison, who had rejected it all, all that long history of love and hate and cruelty, Sirius was afraid of his own shadow some days.

So it was obviously Peter Pettigrew who was bravest.  Peter was not afraid of anything, he was Gryffindor to the bone, full of mischief and daring.

They didn’t realize, these young Gryffindor boys, that fearlessness is a very different thing from courage. 

The Death Eaters understood, even if their master did not.  That is, they understood fear, they understood how to manipulate.  

James Potter was their goal, and his muggleborn wife.  They were a symbol of everything the Death Eaters stood against.  James, wealthy, talented, handsome, pureblooded, his family powerful and always standing against bigotry and oppression.  Lilly, gorgeous, brilliant, articulate, a mudblood.  The two of them married.  Their baby, half-blood son.  They were a powerful symbol, the Potters, and clever, only accessible through treachery, only to be betrayed by the closest of friends.

So the Death Eaters, those who understood humanity, those who understood brave young boys and fearless ones, Severus, the Death Eating Blacks, they pushed.

They outright asked Sirius Black to join them, in the name of fear, in the name of faith, in the name of love (earnestly, in Regulus’ case, even if he knew it would come to nothing, was counting on it).  They hunted Remus Lupin.  They killed his parents slowly, oh so very slowly.  They pushed and pushed at him.  Among the four of them they sowed dissension.  They never touched Pettigrew, never gave the others reason to suspect their most fearless friend.  His parents they left oh so dangerously, precariously alive.  They allowed Peter the privilege of watching.

Fear, terror, it is no great thing to those who are used to it and choose to be courageous anyway.  It is hard to break those whom life has already shattered. 

Peter Pettigrew learned fear.  Peter Pettigrew broke.


End file.
